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G.I. Joe history
G.I. JOE (j j) n. An enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army, esp. in World War II.The Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 2001 :The term "G.I. Joe" was popularized during America's involvement in the Second World War. Combining the abbreviation of "government issue" with the term for the American every man, the name was applied to the thousands of average American soldiers fighting for freedom against Nazi Germany and its allies. Two decades later, President John F. Kennedy (himself a WWII veteran) and his military advisers created a new special forces unit that would answer directly to the White House. Shortly before his death in 1963, Kennedy placed the Army's highly decorated Lieutenant Joseph Colton in charge of the elite team of soldiers. Colton had served with distinction in the earliest years of the Vietnam conflict. A year later, the team went into operation under the name "G.I. Joe". The name kept the team anonymous and elusive, and became the unofficial code name for Colton. The team was involved in missions all over the world, assisting other units and participating in covert operations throughout the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the team was dissolved and Colton took a well deserved sabbatical, occasionally working with a civilian group known as the Adventure Team. The Team Reborn :As the 1970s came to a close, terrorism was becoming a threat to the world. Seeing the need for an elite unit to combat this threat, the Secretary of Defense ordered the formation of a anti-terrorist team. Officially named Special Counter-terrorist Group Delta, the team was nicknamed G.I. Joe in honor of the legendary team from years before. The team was placed under the direct command of General Lawrence J. Flagg, who was advised by General "Iron-Butt" Austin. Flagg chose Colonel Clayton "Hawk" Abernathy as the team's field commander. Specialist Lonzo "Stalker" Wilkinson became the first member of Hawk's team, and helped the Colonel recruit the retired Vietnam commando, Snake-Eyes, for the team. The remainder of the team consisted of Specialist James "Grand Slam" Barney, Cpl. Eric "Short-Fuze" Freistadt, Cpl. Anthony "Flash" Gambello, Specialist Robert "Grunt" Graves, Pfc. Alvin "Breaker" Kibbey, Cpl. Craig "Rock & Roll" McConnel, Cpl. Rafael "Zap" Melendez, Sgt. Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara, Lt. Ralph "Steeler" Pulaski and Cpl. Lance "Clutch" Steinberg. The team was headquartered in a secret underground base -- The Pit -- beneath the Motor Pool of the Army Chaplains' Assistants School in Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York. It was hoped that no one would ever suspect the team to be based at the most innocent of Army facilities. :The new Joe team used the latest in advanced military hardware in its many missions in hot spots around the world. The young team was often unorthodox, but effective. It was in the early 1980s that the Joes would face their greatest enemy, the terrorist organization Cobra Command. One of their earliest missions was rescuing American scientist Dr. Adele Burkhart from Cobra's island hideout. While the Joes continued to fight various enemies, Cobra -- led by the enigmatic Cobra Commander and the terrorist known as the Baroness -- became their primary adversary. G.I. Joe also struggled with the Oktober Guard, the Soviets' answer to the G.I. Joe team. Cobra used the Cold War of the 1980s to their advantage, and often played the two teams against each other for their own purposes. Cobra's forces nearly defeated both teams in the Hindu Kush mountains before they teamed up to beat Cobra. The enormity of Cobra's threat was becoming apparent to the military as the Joes began to fight the terrorists almost exclusively. In 1983, the Joes discovered that Cobra's secret base was somewhere in the United States, in the decidedly generic town of Springfield. In response to Cobra's growing threat, the military expanded the team to include new members from the nation's other armed forces. Cobra, too, began to expand when Cobra Commander brought Scottish weapons manufacturer James McCullen Destro into the fold. References See Also * G.I. Joe Timeline Category:GI Joe category:History category:Theme